NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 gets official: fastest DX11 GPU around

NVIDIA has officially launched the GeForce GTX 580 GPU, and they’re unsurprisingly pretty excited about it. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 is billed as the world’s fastest DX11 GPU, 30-percent faster than the GTC 480 and packing 512 cores, 16 PolyMorph engines and support for either stereoscopic 3D or triple-displays.

Compared to the AMD Radeon HD 5870, meanwhile, the GeForce GTX 580 is apparently up to 160-percent faster in titles involving tessellation. It shows its power in older titles, too; in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games, the GeForce GTX 580 is faster by up to 62 percent NVIDIA claims.

It’s also meant to be quieter, with a new vapor chamber thermal solution, and churns through 2bn triangles per second. Cards from ASUS, Gigabyte and other NVIDIA partners go on sale today, priced at around $499.

The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 is the world’s fastest DX11 GPU, delivering an astounding level of geometric realism to PC gaming.

The new GeForce GTX 580 has been reengineered from the transistor-level up to deliver an increase of up to 35 percent in performance per watt, and performance that is up to 30 percent faster than the original GeForce GTX 480.

NVIDIA’s Endless City harnesses the horsepower of the GeForce GTX 580’s incredible tessellation engines to procedurally generate urban detail never before possible in an interactive world. Sit back, relax and enjoy the view.

Tired of game characters that remain unchanged as they take damage and fall over dead looking as good as when they arrived? For your viewing pleasure we introduce the battle of ALIEN VS TRIANGLES where tessellation is used to transform and destroy an enemy using “multi-dimensional tessellation.”

SANTA CLARA, CA — (Marketwire) — 11/09/2010 — NVIDIA® today announced the latest consumer GPU based on the NVIDIA® Fermi architecture, the GeForce® GTX 580, which has been reengineered from the transistor-level up to deliver increased power efficiency and performance over previous generation products.

The GeForce GTX 580 GPU delivers the world’s fastest performance for DirectX 11 (DX11) games, and support for NVIDIA 3D Vision™, Surround, PhysX®, SLI® and CUDA™ technologies, further entrenching GeForce-based PCs as the most robust gaming platforms in the world. The combination of an innovative vapor chamber thermal solution and new architectural enhancements make the GTX 580 the fastest and quietest GPU in its class, delivering an increase of up to 35 percent in performance per watt(i), and performance that is up to 30 percent faster than the original GeForce GTX 480(ii).

For the most recent games that feature tessellation — the key feature of DX11 — the 512-core GeForce GTX 580 is up to 160 percent faster(iii) than the closest competitive product. Even in previous-generation DX9 and DX10 games, the GeForce GTX 580 is faster by up to 62 percent(iv), including in the blockbuster PC title StarCraft II.

“For Crysis 2, we’ll take advantage of what NVIDIA’s new GeForce GTX 580 GPUs bring,” said Cevat Yerli, president and CEO of Crytek. “A supersoldier that needs to save NYC from an alien invasion needs the best tech possible. That’s not only his Nanosuit, but also stunning DX11 geometric realism that a GPU like the GeForce GTX 580 can offer for our PC gamers.”

“At Epic, we’ve standardized on NVIDIA GeForce GPUs for Unreal Engine 3 development,” said Tim Sweeney, Founder, Epic Games. “The GTX 580 offers even more rendering and compute power than NVIDIA’s previous high end GeForce GPU but thanks to its new cooling system it’s also much more quiet. Whether you’re an engineer working with the Unreal Technology or a gamer who wants the ultimate Bulletstorm experience, the GTX 580 delivers.”

With full support for NVIDIA 3D Vision and NVIDIA Surround technologies, the GeForce GTX 580 GPU also provides the graphics horsepower and video bandwidth needed to experience games and high-definition Blu-ray movies in eye-popping stereoscopic 3D on a single display or spanning across three screens for an immersive gaming environment. And with NVIDIA SLI™ technology, the industry’s most scalable multi-GPU platform, gamers will be delighted by the sheer increase in gaming performance by adding a second or third GeForce GTX 580 to their PC.

512 cores and 16 PolyMorph engines deliver massive tessellation and compute firepower for games
Hard launch with immediate availability at an estimated SEP of $499 USD.
Up to 35 percent improvement in performance/watt efficiency
New vapor chamber thermal solution results in the quietest GPU in its class
New level of geometric realism — 2 billion triangles/second
Provides game developers total creative freedom to create cutting-edge DX11 games